Not Feeling So Blessed Now

I cannot be the only one who is angry all the time at what a clusterfeck my country has become. In the battle between the Greedies and the Needies, it looks like the Greedheads won out. Let's face it, the Billionaires and Tech Brothers have decided that people with nothing have too much. 

Aerial of Norwich, CT 2019 Harbor fireworks

And don't look to Congress to stop the most awful, evil, talentless piece of skin in my lifetime to occupy the Oval Office, as they are busy helping themselves (that's why they have two hands to take it all and two pockets to put it in) and are as craven and spineless as the nine nitwits on the Supreme Court, who, instead of being impartial and adjudicating cases based on the facts, check to see if you're a woman or an immigrant or gave one or more of them a yacht ride before rendering a decision. 

You know it's bad when pond scum like Elon Musk threatens to form his own politial party to put the two monopoly parties on notice and you think that's a good idea except Musk is a horrible human being so how can you agree with him on anything?  

Norwich, CT Veterans Memorial Garden

I wrote this fifteen years ago when I was feeling far more optimistic about myself and my nation. I called it: 

The Gift of Quiet

Here's what I"m thinking, since we're now hip-deep in the holiday weekend, maybe all the bobbing talking heads on the 24/7 Noise channels can follow Piers Morgan's lead, if for only 72 hours, and not bring me their version of the Ghosts of Independence Day Past, Present and Future. 

Drone photo by Brian Swope of Norwich, CT fireworks 2021

On a good day, downhill with a strong breeze at their backs, most of these folks can't diagram a sentence much less construct a coherent argument that doesn't involve the use of 'Democrat' or 'Republican' as an epithet.

A lot of people had to sacrifice everything, and far more sacrificed a great deal (from space you can't tell us apart, trust me on this one) for us to choose to barbecue, watch fireworks, go to the beach/the mountains, do whatever, for "America's Birthday" that I'd just like us, just for today to NOT have to pick a side, unless it's either Cole Slaw or potato salad, if you follow my drift.

Television is everywhere we go, and in some places, though none that I frequent, that includes public bathrooms and newborn nurseries (like a six-hour-old infant can tell Hannity from Watters). We can't know everything, but we seem to be hellbent on trying.

The chatter channels make sure we never have to be alone-and if you and I are distressed by the vicious belittling of those who don't share a studio host's views, we may be the only people who grasp that two diatribes don't make a dialogue. 

I'm not sure that's a good thing for us, especially this holiday weekend, as we'll get stomped from both sides for lacking the purity of faith that their ideology, mislabeled as patriotism, demands.

So maybe later, instead of turning up the big screen so you can hear it better over the charcoal in the grill, you can hope for a lull in the battle that has become Life in these United States, where the sides are no longer clearly defined and the tradition of Right and Wrong hasn't been "improved" by situational ethics. 

We're not the first Americans to have seared our souls searching for a better life, but if we can't find or create a common ground to continue to do so real soon, there may not be that many more after us. God Bless America, a once-fine idea that was hollowed out by selfish bastards.

-bill kenny